-
The Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a revolt against the Qing dynasty in China, fought with religious conviction over regional economic conditions.
Taiping forces were run as a cult-like group called the God Worshipping Society.
The Taiping Rebellion eventually failed, however, and led to the deaths of more than 20 million people. -
Foreign Influence
Before the century of the Chinese Civil War, European nations had exploited China and caused destabilization, China had lost wars against European nations such as the opium wars.
The country had been forced to sign unequal treaties and therefore other nations had enormous control over Chinese trade and even there were expeditions to spread Christianity. -
Boxer Rebellion
This is an act against the West, "Boxers” was a name that foreigners gave to a Chinese secret society known as the Yihequan.
They were motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and by opposition to Western colonialism and the Christian missionary activity that was associated with it. -
The overthrow the Manchu dynasty
There was a feeling that the Manchu dynasty should be overthrown so that the country could be westernized and democracy could be introduced. The dynasty was overthrown it what is known as the Double Tenth. Most provinces declared independent from Beijing. It will lead to the impacts of imperialism, anti-foreign sentiment and political weakness. -
The rule of Yuan Shikai
Elections were held in China in 1913, even though Yuan Shikai won the presidency, the majority of seats in the parliament were from Sun Yatsen's party, Yuan Shikai didn't want to share power with the parliament and in 1914 he dissolved it proclaiming himself emperor calling his intended dynasty "The grand constitutional era". -
Warlord war
Generals and military governors established their own governments and used force to enforce authority, they fought each other for the control of China. -
The May Fourth Movement
Students in Beijing led a protest against the warlords, traditional Chinese culture and the Japanese. This began with the conflict initiated in the treaty of Versailles which had given to Japan control over Shandong. -
GMD and CCP
Communists and nationalists were the two political groups from China that at the end will divide the country because of ideology, by one side it was the CCP which was the communist party officially set up in 1921, by the other hand was the GMD or Guomindang which declared itself as a parliamentary party. -
The First United Front
Both the GMD and CCP wanted to unify China, they agreed to eliminate the warlords and free China from the imperialist powers, so in 1922 they formed the first United Front, they never fought together instead it was more an alliance of "peace" between them to fight the common enemies but this united front failed afterwards. -
White Terror
General Jiang Jieshi had expelled all communists from the GMD and his attacks towards the reached a peak in 1927, in Shanghai where some 5,000 communists were shot after the northern expedition, other attacks were carried out in other cities in what became known as "The purification process".